I've never had much respect for Backes, but apparently he has changed over the last few years, hence his improved reputation. It will take more than that to convince me otherwise, but I'm open to him having turned over a new leaf.

I believe the ref was sure, which is why he didn't confer with the other refs on the call. That doesn't mean he was right though

Agreed.

Backes has hit guys like this before. His hits like this are lateral, blindside, and sometimes push the boundaries of being late. That's a lot of the criteria for hits the league is trying to crack down on. All he has to do is graze a guy's chin and they're going to toss him from the game and suspend him.

With the way Huskins head snapped the ref jumped the gun. Bad call, but I'm hardly surprised given the caliber of officiating the last few seasons.

How can you not blame the refs? It was a horrible call, made by a referee.

He is most certainly to blame because he was dead wrong.

Enlighten me. How often does St. Louis play "goon hockey"? I'd like to know.

Do you actually want to talk about it or are you just going to blindly and automatically deny anything I say? And don't whine about officiating, it goes in your favor far more often than not. And let's be real, you're the flavor of the month. You should probably expect it to continue deep past April.

Backes has hit guys like this before. His hits like this are lateral, blindside, and sometimes push the boundaries of being late.

Like this? Well this hit may have been more lateral than not, but it wasn't blindside and I would argue not late either. I'm focussing more on "Huskin's, WTF were you thinking he was going to do when he came skating across the ice like that? Do you not know when he is on the ice and what he is capable of?"

Like this? Well this hit may have been more lateral than not, but it wasn't blindside and I would argue not late either. I'm focussing more on "Huskin's, WTF were you thinking he was going to do when he came skating across the ice like that? Do you not know when he is on the ice and what he is capable of?"

To be clear, I think the hit on Huskins was a fine and he definitely should've been aware of who was on the ice.

My point is it's a kind of hit Backes looks for, and it's essentially one misstep away from being the kind of dangerous hit the league is cracking down on. If the guy he's hitting leans forward he'll end up contacting the head and the hit becomes a Matt Cooke special. So I wasn't all that surprised the refs overreacted. That was all I was saying.

I think he caught Rafalski with one a few years ago.

Found the hit. And a good explanation from Mick. It basically meets all the criteria of being an illegal hit, except for the head contact. So it's a high risk hit. When the refs saw Huskins head snap they must've assumed Backes clipped him. That was my point.

As much as I don't like Backes, I'm not blaming him or anything for the hit.